Afghan authorities have arrested an important Taliban commander in the southern border town of Spinboldak.
Mullah Rehmatullah, who was commander in Takhta Pul district, 50 kilometres south of Kandahar, was arrested yesterday in a raid in Spinboldak, near the Pakistani border, an official said.
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Mullah Omar - whereabouts still unknown
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The official said Rehmatullah had handled a stream of foreign fighters coming into Afghanistan to fight alongside the Taliban.
Rehmatullah registered the foreign fighters, mostly Arabs and Pakistanis, and deployed them in various parts of the country, he said. "We are interrogating him as we suspect he must possess large quantities of weapons and ammunition".
But most of the Taliban's top officials, including leader Mullah Mohammad Omar, have evaded capture.
On Saturday, US aircraft scattered pamphlets over southern Afghanistan offering rewards unimaginable to the average Afghan for help in arresting Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters.